AI-driven optical fiber cable industry experiences high prosperity; listed companies in the supply chain ramp up high-end innovation

Securities Daily reporter Li Wanchenxi

Market expectations for the fiber optic cable industry’s business climate continue to rise.

On April 2, the communications wire and cable and supporting segments strengthened against the trend, with the segment’s overall gain exceeding 3%. Nanjing Huarui Technology Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Huiyuan Opto-Communications Co., Ltd. hit the daily limit. Leading stocks such as the Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (hereinafter “Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable”) surged sharply in tandem, with Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable even touching the daily limit intraday. It set a historical high of 338.80 yuan per share. As of that day’s close, the price reached 332.49 yuan per share, with a cumulative gain of more than 180% since 2026.

According to a research report recently issued by CITIC Securities Jianchun, since the third quarter of 2025, fiber optic prices in the Chinese market have continued to move upward, reflecting improving demand and overall tight supply. With strong overseas demand and impressive export performance, it further confirms the robust global demand for fiber optic cables.

He Jiyong, general manager of Guangdong CunChuang Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter that the fiber optic cable industry is entering a long-awaited high-congestion/high-cycle period. The industry is showing an overall trend of “rising volume and prices in tandem.” Prices of ordinary fiber optics have risen significantly, while high-end specialty fiber optics have seen even more pronounced price increases and higher premiums. Overseas market demand has concentratedly surged into a breakout. As the supply-demand situation continues to remain relatively tight, the industry is shifting from the past low-price competition to structural shortages, and high-end development and overseas expansion have become the core themes of this round of recovery.

AI-driven fiber optic cable industry sees “rising volume and prices in tandem”

Fiber optics, as the core carrier of optical communications, are the “information main artery” for AI computing power network transmission. Data from the CRU (Commodity Research Unit) shows that in 2025, China’s fiber optic shipment volume reached 372 million fiber-kilometers, up 7.5% year over year. It accounted for 56.3% of the world’s total shipment volume, and the company’s position in the global supply chain has continued to strengthen.

“This round of the fiber optic cable industry’s breakout is fundamentally different from the traditional infrastructure cycles driven by fiber-to-the-home and 5G base station construction earlier,” Liang Zhenpeng, chief consultant at Beijing Zhifan Haian Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter. “AI computing infrastructure has already become the absolute core engine driving industry growth. Its demand for fiber optic cables is not only a simple increase in quantity, but a dual breakthrough in both scale and specifications.”

Liang Zhenpeng further explained that AI data centers need to build non-blocking, ultra-low latency, and ultra-high-speed internal interconnection networks. The model training process has extremely strict requirements for transmission latency and loss, directly igniting rigid demand for high-end products such as ultra-low-loss and hollow-core fiber optics. These high-end fiber optic cables have higher prices and gross margins, becoming a key driving force behind the industry’s “price increases.”

“Judging from the industry’s current situation, the fiber optic cable industry has already shown an imbalance between supply and demand, and it will be difficult to ease in the short term,” Zhang Xinyuan, research head at Beijing Kefaode Technology Development Co., Ltd., analyzed in an interview with Securities Daily reporter. “For the upstream optical rod products, the capacity expansion cycle is long and the investment threshold is high, so in the short term it cannot form large-scale new capacity. Meanwhile, the industry’s overall capacity utilization rate has been maintained at a high level. Against the backdrop of a mismatch between supply and demand, industry inventory continues to fall, further intensifying the supply-demand imbalance.”

CRU data for March shows that the China market price for the global benchmark G.652.D single-mode fiber was 83.4 yuan per fiber-kilometer (excluding tax), which is up sharply from the 17.61 yuan per fiber-kilometer price released in November 2025.

At the same time, the breakout of overseas market demand further amplifies the “increase in volume” momentum for the fiber optic cable industry. A CITIC Securities Jianchun research report mentioned that in February this year, China exported 3,779.9 tons of fiber optics, with an amount of 790 million yuan. Year over year, the volume and value increased by 63.6% and 126.8%, respectively.

Oriental Fortune/Youming Tianxia (Beijing) Information Consulting Co., Ltd. expects that by 2027, the share of fiber optic demand contributed by AI-driven data center internal and data center interconnection (DCI) scenarios will rise sharply from less than 5% in 2024 to 35%.

Cao Zhe, chief investment officer at Beijing Aivenshilu Investment Management Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter that in the future, as AI large-model iterations continue, computing power networks expand, and 6G technology is deployed, fiber optic cable application scenarios will continue to expand—from internal data center interconnection and cross-border computing power transmission extending into areas such as industrial AI and remote healthcare. Advanced products will accelerate commercialization, and the industry’s trend of rising volume and prices in tandem is expected to continue.

Industry chain listed companies step up investment in high-end innovation

During the industry’s high-congestion/high-cycle period, leading fiber optic cable listed companies have increasingly focused on high-end innovation, strengthening R&D and capacity planning, and seizing opportunities for the development of AI optical interconnection.

A relevant person at Jiangsu Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd. said that the company’s AI advanced optical fiber materials research and manufacturing center expansion project is being advanced in an orderly manner; the construction of the plant for the Phase I expansion project has been successfully completed, and it is now in the equipment installation stage. To meet sustained growth in demand for specialty fibers such as multi-mode, multi-core, and hollow-core fibers, the Phase I investment will add advanced equipment for processes, inspection, and supporting utilities for the production of specialty fibers including ultra-low-loss hollow-core fiber, ultra-low-loss multi-core fiber, and high-performance multi-band multi-mode fiber.

Earlier, in its investor relations activity record, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable stated that it has already built a “Three Super” (i.e., ultra-large capacity, ultra-low latency, and ultra-low loss) all-optical network solution with AI new-type optical fibers at its core, oriented toward intelligent computing infrastructure. For the massive data flow demand within data centers, it coordinates high-end multi-mode optical fibers with ultra-high-speed optical modules to achieve efficient transmission of data over short distances and flexible interconnection.

A relevant person at Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology Co., Ltd. said that in the case of hollow-core fiber, based on the company’s independently mastered capabilities covering the entire chain—from hollow-core fiber simulation design to mother rod preparation and then drawing—it has been the first in China to achieve large-scale deployment of O-band anti-resonant hollow-core fiber within AI data centers and has also entered a pilot stage in the existing network of China Telecom.

Wu Yumeng, a research assistant at the Digital Commercial Law Research Center of Shanghai Sanda University, said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter that leading fiber optic cable companies should continue to increase R&D investment in high-end products such as hollow-core fiber, multi-core fiber, and ultra-low-loss optical fibers. Leveraging the advantages of a complete domestic industrial chain, they should further expand into overseas markets with strong AI computing power demand, enhance their global share, and consolidate competitive advantages.